Texas judge declines to close Camp Mystic despite family’s request after last year’s floods

AUSTIN, TX — A Texas judge on Wednesday ordered Camp Mystic to keep the damaged cabins but stopped short of derailing reopening plans after the family of one of 25 girls and two counselors who died last summer filed a lawsuit to keep the camp closed.

The family of 8-year-old Seeley Steward, who was swept away in a flood last July Fourth and whose body has not yet been recovered, has asked District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble to bar the owners from reopening the facility and halt any construction while the lawsuit is pending. Their request for a temporary injunction asserts that any changes to the camp could destroy evidence needed for the lawsuit.

Gamble ruled that the owners of Camp Mystic may not alter or demolish the cabins in which campers were housed during floods, and she said they may not use the part of the camp closest to the Guadalupe River where those cabins are located.

“What we’re trying to do is preserve the evidence that’s out there so we can understand it, so future camp participants aren’t put in a situation like this again,” Will Steward, Seeley’s father, told reporters after the hearing.

Campers and counselors were killed when rapidly rising floodwaters inundated a low-lying area of ​​the summer camp before dawn on the Fourth of July. In all, the devastating floods killed at least 136 people, raising questions about how things got so devastating.

The camp, established in 1926, was not evacuated and was hit hard when the river rose from 14 feet (4.2 m) to 29.5 feet (9 m) within 60 minutes.

“The worst thing you can do is put a bunch of 8-year-olds on a bus and try to get them out of there,” said Mikal Watts, an attorney for Camp Mystic and its owners. “They would all drown.”

In a packed courtroom Wednesday, family members of the dead girls wore buttons depicting their photos, while Camp Mystic lawyers showed photos of trees planted in their memory and architectural drawings of plans to rebuild parts of the camp outside the thousand-year-old flood zone.

Lawyers for Camp Mystic expressed sympathy for the girls’ families but stressed there was little they could have done during the catastrophic floods that quickly overwhelmed the camp. Pictures of rising flood waters were shown in court on Wednesday.

“No one has ever seen any previous flood like we saw in 2025,” Watts said.

He said more than 850 camp participants have already registered to attend camp this summer. The camp still needs to be licensed by state regulators to operate this summer.

Edward Eastland, the son of camp owner Richard Eastland, who died in the flood, testified Wednesday that his mother, wife and their children, as well as another employee, were in the camp house when the house’s “double doors opened” from the floodwaters. They had to break a separate window to get out and evacuate to higher ground. Everyone survived.

The camp had security cameras around campus, but no one was watching the live feed in the middle of the night with the water levels rising, Eastland said. When he tried to lift it around 3 a.m., he was unable to do so.

When asked about the camp’s flood plans, Eastland said he didn’t know if there was anything more detailed than the one-paragraph slide shown at the hearing. Will and Sissy Steward said they don’t believe the camp has adequate safety measures in place to welcome new campers while they are still searching for their daughter.

“They didn’t have a plan, and they don’t have a plan moving forward,” Sissy Steward said.

The camp’s decision last year to partially open and build a memorial on the land sparked outrage from many of the girls’ families mourning their loved ones and who said they were not consulted about the plans.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked Texas regulators not to renew Camp Mystic’s license while investigating the deaths and cited legislative investigations expected to begin in the spring.

The families of several of the girls who died filed a lawsuit against the camp administrators, arguing that camp officials failed to take the necessary steps to protect the camps as floodwaters approached that threatened their lives.

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.